In a conventional network, there is a direct wireless connection between a base station (E-UTRAN Node B, eNB) and a user equipment (User Equipment, UE), namely, the network is a single-hop network. With the development of communication technologies, a relay technology is introduced. To be specific, one or more relay stations (Relay Node, RN) are added between the eNB and the UE to forward a radio signal, sent by the eNB, one or more times, so that the signal finally arrives at the UE. For example, an RN may divide a radio link between the eNB and the UE into a radio link from the eNB to the RN and a radio link from the RN to the UE, so that a link with poor quality can be replaced with two links with good quality to obtain higher link capacity and better coverage.
By taking an LTE technology as an example, eNBs may be connected through an X2 interface. After an RN is introduced, from the perspective of the X2 interface, the RN has an X2 interface only with its donor base station (Donor eNB, DeNB), and the DeNB has X2 interfaces with other eNBs. In other words, all X2 messages transferred between the RN and other eNBs need to be processed and forwarded by the DeNB.
In the prior art, the RN, as a base station, can provide services for the UE. However, the prior art does not provide an effective technical solution which can enable the DeNB to correctly process a handover request message sent by the RN so that a handover preparation process can proceed smoothly.